Hedge Fund Business Lifts Profit for Blackstone

New York Times – The Blackstone Group may be best known as an immense private equity firm, but the firm’s earnings report on Wednesday made it clear that Blackstone has been buoyed by its hedge fund operations.

Blackstone reported $165.6 million in profit for its second quarter, excluding costs tied to its initial public offering last June. That represented a nearly 75 percent drop from the same period last year, a consequence of the troubles still plaguing the credit markets. On the basis of generally accepted accounting principles, the firm reported a pretax loss of $185.5 million.

Yet Blackstone’s results, which amount to 15 cents a unit, still beat the average analyst estimate of 8 cents a unit, according to Bloomberg News.

Other publicly traded alternative-asset managers also reported quarterly earnings on Wednesday. Och-Ziff Capital Management, a big hedge fund, said it earned $93.3 million, while GLG Partners, a large hedge fund based in London, reported profits of $44.2 million. Both figures exclude costs related to the firms’ public offerings.